Law and afterward comforted from heaven with a hope of mercy to salvation witnessed in their consciences by the holy Ghost But the words of the Greek Text are commonly mistranslated Concerning the imperfection of hope he saith little to the purpose but what he saith implieth a contradiction in it selfe and to what he would assert also for he saith that the Apostle compareth hope to an anchor for the soul which is both sure and stedfast as the Apostle doth Heb. 6.19 and yet this saith he doth no ways prove our hope to be perfect for what greater perfection can there be in an anchor then to have it sure and stedfast and to stay and preserve us against all winds and storms of Satan which he confesseth that our hope doth Nor is it the anchor that reels to and fro as he absurdly speaks but that which lyeth at anchor or the Ship it selfe but at the distance and the whole length of a cable whence its mobility by the winds and storms doth arise and not from the anchor it selfe And as for charity he goes about page 32 to prove that it must be imperfect all this life long First because our knowledge here is imperfect and but in part It is saith he a Maxime among Divines tantum scimus quantum diligimus which he or some others for him doth English thus imperfect knowledge cannot produce perfect charity But though the English saying is true yet it is not the sense of the Maxime but rather this that we have so much divine experimental and saving knowledge as there is love found in us that knowledge being always accompanied with a proportionable love 1 Joh. 2.3 Hereby we know that we love God if we keep his commandements and verse 4. he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him True it is also which the Poet speaks quod latet ignotum est ignoti but not ignotae as he hath it nulla cupido things simply unknown cannot be loved yet is not our affection always towards men according to our knowledge or acquaintance with them as he affirms for knowledge and acquaintance may be without love But yet it is true also which he out of Bernard saith we can neither desire what we know not nor enjoy what we love not and that we shall love God with an absolute perfection in heaven because that we shall so know him and that with an experimental knowledge of his goodnesse But this hinders us not from so knowing him here as to love him above all which is the perfection of love here required of us Secondly he saith that perfect charity expelleth fear but there is no Saint here without feare Yet we have often shewed the contrary out of Luk. 1.74 75. and 1 Joh. 4.17 18. Thirdly he saith that perfect charity expels sin which he denys to be exterminable here because Saint James saith in many things we all offend chap. 3.1 2. Which is truly spoken of James of the whole race of our life not of our final and best attainments for in the same verse Saint James describes such a perfect man qualis invenire posset aut debet saying If any man sin not in a word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body But to fortifie his own cause he goeth about to disable the word of Christ saying Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that he lay down his life for his friend which he saith is not yet perfect for men may doe this out of ambition and for vain-glorious ends and therefore saith he our Saviour doth not bring this to prove the perfection of our love but of his own toward us so far as might be understood by outward apprehension But there is a life which if he and others would lay down in love to the Father Son and the Holy Ghost and their friends whom they should perfectly love it would be an undeniable argument of the greatest and most perfect love towards God and that is not to offer our only son with Abraham or our own natural life but the life of sin and and that is the life which he would have us hate and lay down for his sake Matth. 10.39 Luk. 14.26 Joh. 12.25 Rev. 12.11 nor is there any other life that men can properly call theirs but the life of sin for the natural life and the spiritual life are Gods workmanship and gift but so is not sin And having thus to his power mutilated the words of Christ Joh. 15.13 he goes about likewise to doe Christ the like service where our Saviour saith Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you of which this Iohn of Burson as if he affected to be herein an Antichrist saith This is an hypothetical proposition which can never prove his perfection of charity because we can never be able to perform the condition Doth Christ then give us false marks and mock-tokens to try our selves by whether we be his friends or no was not Abraham called the friend of God 2 Chron. 20.7 Isai 41.8 Iam. 2.23 and was it not upon this very score Gen. 26.5 because saith the Lord that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my commandements statutes and my charge This brought all blessings upon Abraham and his seed after him But he goes on saying For although Bellarmine saith Gods word may be kept that is fulfilled yet he proves it not If he did not he might easily have done it and for to say that Gods commandements are grievous and to say that we can keep them not is not the same saith he yes in the Apostles sense they are Joh. 5.3 4. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous and he shews the reason of it in the two next verses to the confounding of both the Vindicators positions for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world to wit that world of sin opposite to the world of the Father of which sinful world he had spoken 1 John 2.15 16. And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith For a thing saith the Vindicator may be very light yet heavier then I can bear Surely he is either a very weak man or this is a strong mistake but how doth he prove it The commandements saith he are just and holy and good Rom. 7.12 and the yoke of obedience is easie and light Matth. 11.30 Both these are true but the former of these doth not speak any thing of the lightnesse or heavinesse of Gods Law nor yet the latter unless it be to those that are weary of the yoke of sin and come to Christ and learn of him the lowlinesse and meeknesse and all other Christian virtues which are contrary to sin and which enable men to obey that Law Now whereas he would prove that these commandements of the moral Law are heavyer then we can bear
otherwise saith the Vindicator or his friend for him if he Abraham were justified by the works done without the help of grace he might as vvell glory before God as men which is not true in every behalfe for he received his internal helps from God and not from himself Psalm 100. It is he that made us and not we our selves But the Apostle tels us saith he that although by those works done by the help of grace he might glory before men where doth he tell us so yet not before God and therefore he vvas not justified by those vvorks in the sight of God But as the premisses vvere false so is the conclusion vvhich he dravvs from thence for by every grace of God he vvas justified in some kind of actual righteousnesse and purged from the contrary sin vvhich is the only justification vvhich Paul pleads for in Jesus Christ necessary to life Nor is his next reason lesse absurd vvhere he saith for if vve could be justified by any vvorks hovvsoever done by grace or vvithout grace then the vvages that is eternal life is not counted of favour but of debt Is it not so when vvithout the rich grace of God the duties required unto eternal life cannot be performed But saith he vvhen vve cannot be justified by our ovvn vvorks nor are we so justified but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly so that he makes them godly that were before ungodly who is in Jesus Christ what are any ungodly that are in Christ see 1 Cor. 6.11 that we are then justified by his righteousnesse and saved by his merits like the hungry dreamer Isai 29.8 who dreameth that he eateth but when he awaketh his soul is empty Then faith saith the Apostle and not any kind of works is imputed to him for righteousnesse Rom. 4.5 But here the new false Apostle John of Burstou corrupteth and falsifieth the Text for these words and not any kind of works are not found there See Rev. 22.18 what his reward is like to be for if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him all the plagues that are written in this book But Pag. 64. he saith I shall here close this point with these conclusions First that no man that is a sinner can be justified by his own obedience to the moral Law Secondly that no man that hath offended the Law can be justified by his own satisfaction for his transgression But who denies either of those or to what purpose is all this unlesse as we said before to entertain his Reader with kickshaws But wanderers love extravagancies As to the first of these he saith that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 that is the Law accounteth all such to be sinners and accounteth them as transgressors and therefore they can never be pronounced guiltlesse by that Law which proves them guilty but every man is a transgressor of the Law to wit before grace and for some time after Rom. 3.9 Gal. 2.1 Joh. 1.8 11. and our consciences testifie it to our faces Therefore can no man be justified by his own obedience to the Law But what is this to the obedience of Christ in the Saints by which alone as we have often said they may be justified freely and ought so to be Secondly he saith that a sinner which hath once offended can never by any action or passion of his own make satisfaction to the justice of God for his transgression Yet can God freely remit thousands and millions of such transgressions to the converting sinner and the Law saith he being broken there is no way to be justified by the Law but by making a plenary satisfaction for the transgression which no sinners satisfaction can do because a finite act can never be a sufficient value to satisfie the offence that is done against an infinite goodnesse as also because all that we can do yea much more is required of us now that assisting grace is tendered as our duty to the Law or Law-giver and therefore it cannot be rendred as any payment for the breach of the Law Therefore saith he to conclude this point or truth we are not under the Law for the justification of our persons as Adam was nor for satisfaction of divine justice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience what perfect or imperfect and a rule of living But not as we ought to do by his doctrine T is not saith he published from Sinai but from Sion but to whom is it so as a Law of liberty what to take our sleep and swing in sin and as a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bondage Yes it is so published still to impenitent and unbelieving men 1 Tim. 1.9 knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient And yet he saith Pag. 65. that the obedience is not removed yes by his doctrine a great part of it is but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured But how perfectly pardoned but inchoatively cured by his doctrine for saith he the observance thereof is necessary as a fruit of faith but mark how enormously he speaks in the next words but not saith he as a condition of life and righteousnesse yet necessary necessitate pracepti as a thing commanded the transgression whereof is the incurring of sin not necessitate medii as a strict undispensible means of salvation the transgression whereof yes if it be habitual or final is a peremptory obligation to death But we have proved before out of Mat. 5.18 19. and Rev. 14.22 that this is required by Christ as the way to life by the necessity of a medium or means as well as of a precept especially of those that have both space and means to attain unto it in Christ And thus saith he of the former of the two last branches of the second position wherein I have clearly shewed as one would shew a small and remote object in a dark night that as no man can be justified by obedience to the Law nor the works of the best Christians cannot justifie them what not in Christ And now he comes to the last branch that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ which being rightly understood we also maintain We beleeve and maintain saith he as the Scripture teacheth us what is that That we are acquitted and absolved from our sins and so justified in the sight of God by and for he should have said through the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ And so do we but not in his way and sense And though we have said heretofore that justification and remission of sins are two different things yet we would be thus understood that the pardon of sins in his sense which is to take away the guilt or obligation unto punishment and leave the corruption behind and justification that is to make us just holy and good or liberative
come salvation and strength the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast out who accused them before God day and night In hope of this kingdom and in order thereunto the Saints to whom it was published purified their hearts by faith in Gods sanctifying grace to be had in Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.2 3 Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Act. 15 7 8 9. Men and brethren ye know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and beleive and God which knoweth the hearts bare them witnesse giving the Holy Ghost unto them even as he did unto us and put no difference between them and us purifying their hearts by faith Out of this faith and hope the souls of Gods elect do cry unto God night and day for vengeance against Gods spiritual enemies and theirs who first had crucified Christ in them and by them and afterwards did cruciate and vex them with continual temptations and assaults Luk. 18.1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men always ought to pray and not to faint saying There was in a City a Judge that feared not God neither regarded man and there was a widow in that City and she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while but afterwards he said within himself though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her lest by her continuall coming she weary me And the Lord said hear what the unjust Judg saith and hall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and hight though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Neverthelesse when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith upon earth Where now is this faith of Gods elect to be found yea where is the faith of the Apostles and their Churches to be heard or read of who looked for no life and glory by Christ unlesse they died with Christ unto all known sin Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him then we believe that we shall live with him and the doctrine which held forth that and no other way for the fallen man to enter into life the Apostle commends as a faithful and undeceivable word implying that the contrary doctrine and perswasions deceive mens souls in the end 2 Tim. 11.12 This is a faithful saying if we be dead with Christ we shall live with him if we suffer with him dying to sin we shall also reign with him If we deny him in this way he will also deny us The seventh Topick is the inequality between sin and Gods grace now to be had of Christ Jesus thereagainst Is 5.4.11 No weapon that is formed against the Lord shall prosper and every tongue that raiseth up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemne This is the heritage and so forth Rom. 5.17 For if by one or one mans offence death reigned by one how much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ vers 20 21. Moreover the law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did superabound that as sin had reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ The eighth Topick is the professed resolution of the Christians in the Apostles time to die unto all sin Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin namely by Christian profession and resolution live any longer therein Colos 3.3 For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God The ninth Topick is from the true end and use of baptism to teach us this death and burial of sin in conformity to Christs death and resurrection Rom. 6.3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk after we are dead and risen again with him in newness of life for if we have been planted into the likeness of his death we shall also be planted into the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead Colos 2.12 Buried with him in baptism wherein ye are also risen through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead The tenth Topick is from the admission and assertion of this mortified and purged estate every where Rom. 8.2 For the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and death Rom. 6.7 For he that is dead is justified or freed from sin 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ according to the Spirit he is a new creature old things are past away and all things are become new Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Chap. 5.24 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts The eleventh Topick is from the omnipotency of true faith in Christ Marth 15.18 Then said Jesus unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Chap. 21.21 Jesus answered and said unto them Verily I say unto you if ye have faith and doubt not ye shall not onely do this which is done to the fig-tree but also if you shall say unto this mountain of sin be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea it shall be done Mark 9.23 Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible unto him that believeth John 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works then these shall he do because I go to the Father Unto which joyn that of our Saviour John 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world even Satans world which ye through faith shall be by me enabled to overcome 1 John 5.4 5. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even
receive those two gifts of justification and regeneration by the death of Christ for though remission of sins is purchased thereby for the true beleevers yet that is neither regeneration nor justification in the Apostles sense nor is justification purchased thereby for he that made us had power to regenerate without any such purchase That therefore it follows that out of the first Adam to wit our first parent there issued a double evil unto and upon us to wit guilt and corruption we deny as false and inconsequent That in this derivative the sin which he speaks of is an universal corruption is false likewise in which are two great evils as he saith Sed sublato sub ecto tollitur ad unctum Pag. 5. That in it first there is a general defect of all righteousnesse in which we were at first created to wit in our first patents First it is manifestly false as also that any such defect is derived unto us who are still created righteous and holy and after the image of God as these ensuing Texts doe clearely prove besides many more that might be added Gen. 9.6 Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God created he man to wit him that is so killed or else the argument is of no force Jam. 3.9 Therewith to wit with the tongue bless we God and therewith curse we man who is created after the similitude of God Ecclesiast 7.29 Lo this have I found that God made man righteous but they have sought out many inventions Jer. 2.21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me That this pretended derivative sin to be so conveyed from the first Adam to us is an inherent deordination evil disposition disease propension to all mischief and antipathy and aversation to all good which the Scripture calls the flesh the wisdome of the flesh the body of sin earthly members the works of the Devil the Hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire Jam. 3.5 6. Rom. 8.6 7. Jam. 3.15 Eph. 4.22 Col. 3.5 Rom. 7.23 1 John 3.8 Unto which I say that although all those names are justly given to the body of sin especially when it is fully formed in men with all his members yet first there is no such thing found in children of whom our Saviour saith that the Kingdome of Heaven is of such and that unlesse we be born again after our fall and corruption and become like them in humility righteousnesse love and meeknesse we cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Matth. 18.3 Mar. 10.14 15. Doth not Paul also give us this charge 1 Cor. 14.20 Brethren be ye not children in understanding howbeit in malice or naughtiness be children where he implyeth that children have no malice or naughtinesse in them and if sin be the workmanship of the Devil as he out of 1 John 3.8 confesseth I would demand whether the Devil had an hand in the creation of children which he must if this sin be his workmanship But that which follows there that no man can be more sensible of the through-malignity of this derivative corruption then Paul was when he cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Is first the old mistake and afterwards backed with this errour and peice of nonsense untill his understanding was opened to conceive the spiritualness penetration and compass of the holy Law which measures the very bottome of every action for Paul could not be so sensible of his sins malignity till his understanding was so opened nor till he had been scourged also for it by the work of the Law as all men are whom God brings to be and maketh his sons Psal 94.12 Heb. 12. That the Law condemns as well the original as the Acts of sin is true of prohibition but not of condemnation for each sinful motion is by the Law discovered and prohibited but we are not condemned for the same till we approve or like of the temptation in some measure Those ensuing positions are also false First that Paul Rom. 5.14 understands by Adam and Moses our first parent and him that was the Lawgiver but two distinct estates in men as was said before which may appear out of the foregoing verse compared with this For untill the Law sin was in the world that is before the inward Moses Lawgiver or reprover cometh unto men but where there is no Law sin is not reputed for sin for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred Secondly because he saith that death reigned from Adum which is the natural man in his first defection till Moses or one that draweth out of the water of sin That the men who sinned between the first Adam's age and the time of Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression against the clear revelation of Gods holy will as Adam did Yet they did for the same God that did forbid the eating of the forbidden fruit doth ever since prohibit and forbid every sin in every mans soul that is against the moral Law Rom. 2.15 Which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Was not Enoch a Prophet in his time see Jude 1.14 and was not Noah the eight preacher of righteousness as the Apostle calls him 2 Pet. 2.5 were not the men of the old World destroyed for their known wickedness and shut into the infernal prison for their apparent disobedience 1 Pet. 3.19 20. so that the Vindicators misapprehension of this place of mens sinning for want of such light as Adam had is full of darkness As for those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses and who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression we say that as Adam and Moses are two inward states so may these be inward spiritual messengers of God represented by Abel and others as well as the inward Adam and Moses of which he speaks for such a generation of righteous ones which never sinned we find slain by the wicked and incorrigible generation of men Mat. 23.35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah for though men usually in reading this and other Scriptures look no further then the letter yet I demand of them how in justice could all the righteous blood shed from the beginning come upon that wicked and unbeleeving generation of the Jews if they had not inwardly slain a spiritual Abel and other messengers of God even to a spiritual Zachariah that is the Lord remembrancer the son of Barachiah that is of the Lords benediction as all his inward messengers are yea it is true which Abraham answered to
that such as are in Christ who are truly incorporated first into his death and then into the similitude of his resurrection that they have no sin in them for they walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that Paul rejoyceth here that sin was not able to condemn him though it was in him as he had confessed in the former chapter that the evil that he would not that he did and that he saw a Law in the members rebelling against the Law of his mind But this sin will condemn any man where it remaineth as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 that the wages of sin is death and that of corruption Ephes 4.22 that ye put off the old man which is corrupting or destroying with its deceitful lusts for so the best Translators read the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the Apostles argument why he would have the old man put off But he saith that here he expects Cajetan's or Aquinas his false exposition and he shall have it to do him a pleasure out of his own book pag. 23. by the former account Cajetan one of their own fraternity saith damnatum est peccatum non extinctum Yet the worst of these two Epositors here are and will be of better repute even among the Protestants then the Vindicators glosses ever were or will be He saith further that here he expects that of Mr. Parkers that the Apostle spake this when he was a babe in grace But this is another of Mr. Tendring's lies for he saith onely the contrary and proveth it out of Rom. 8.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 4.13 that Paul was not now in that weak and corrupt estate complained of Rom. 7.14 24. and that therefore he speaks it not of his own condition though figuratively in his own person but in the behalfe of such as were babes in Christ Pag. 26. by the former account he citing Pauls words 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am cheif bids us mark it that Paul speaks it not in the preterperfect tense of whom I have been chief but in the present tense of whom I am cheif as if Paul at that time were the chief of sinners But did ever any man besides himself that was not besides himself think or say so Is there not such a figure in the Scripture as Enallage temporum the putting of one tense for another Doth not Paul 1 Cor. 15.8 9 10. Ephos 2.4 5 6. Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. and even at the 13 vers before set forth his corrupt estate of unbelief as a condition that was past But he goes on out of Paul his 2 Epist to I know not whom or what Church for none is named chap. 1. from vers 6. to the 13. to prove that Paul was not now a babe or child in Christ but rather an old man as he cals himself Paul the aged in his Epistle to Philemon Truly as old as the Vindicator would make himself he shews himself very young and childish in that his reasoning for we know none that affirms the thing that he goeth about to disprove but he loves to fight with his own shadow In conclusion he saith that these Jesuitical cavils which yet are his own are too well known and never did nor shall prevail against Gods truth Then he goeth on from Rom. 8.1 to the second verse upon which he makes as learned observations as he did formerly upon the first verse for whereas the Apostle saith that the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Here saith he we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sin in this life but from the Law of sin But first it is evident that Paul saith that he was made free from that Law of sin of which he had so much complained chap. 7.21 22 23. Secondly that he cals it a Law of death as he doth chap. 7.24 a body of death because it hath death and condemnation appendant to it and involved in it And thirdly that he was now actually even in this life and for the present freed therefrom And lastly that it was not the death of Christ that had thus freed him to wit from guilt leaving the pollution behind as this Champion of corruption speaks hereafter but it was the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that had now freed him both from that Law of sin and of death its concomitant so that he cannot possibly speak of his present condition in chap. 7. from ver 14. to the 24. And whereas he adds in the close of that page that Christian experience shews that no sort of men are more troubled with temptations then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the Law of sin Though this be true yet what is this to his purpose or the proposition which he would now maintain for we speak not what befals regenerate men at their first conversion but of that which they do or may attain by grace in the end Nor do all temptations arise from corruption they may proceed immediately from Satan and assault such as have no sin or corruption left in them as they did our first parents in innocency and Christ himself as he was man Heb. 4.15 Pag. 19. by the latter account he rols the old stone with Sysiphus saying that our deliverance from sin is but begun not perfected here but that God is faithful by whom we are called Then they are unfaithful that seek not to have the work finished Phil. 1.6 And there he breaks out into a great rapture saying blessed be the Lord that whereas before we were captives to sin now the case of the battel is altered Why what battel did we fight against sin before grace did convert us unto God That sin is become our captive through Christ Was it so with them in whose behalf Paul complaineth but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members we trow not sin was here too often the superiour That it remaineth in us not as a commander but as a captive of the Lord Jesus But doth it not till it be subdued often circumvent us and prevail against us and if so then that of Peter is true 2 Pet. 21.19 Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage at leastwise for a time He saith further that the bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and are left to admonish us of our former miserable condition What are we under bolts and Irons and yet no prisoners or captives But Christ is sent to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to wit against his enemies Esay 61.1 2
3. Luk. 4.18 19 20 yet contrary to this and other promises he saith that we draw the chains of our sins after us which make us move the more slowly But it is the portion of the wicked to be in chains 2 Pet. 2.4 Psal 107.10 11. and to be bound hand and foot Matth. 23.13 There are some that draw iniquity with cords of vanity Esay 5.18 that is with vain excuses and distinctions or ungrounded promises wo to such saith the Prophet Is 5.18 wo c. But these chains saith he are not able to draw us into the bondage that we were in before Yes they have done too many 2 Pet. 2.19 20. That death which is the wages of sin is so changed that it is not the death of the man but the death of the sin in the man What doth this babler say the death that is the wages of sin is the second death in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 14.9 10. and chap. 20.10 15. Sin is the first death and this is the second how then can this be any thing else but the death of a sinner There is another death indeed that is the death of sin and not of the man which is a suffering out of all temptations and a dying with Christ unto all evil Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints of which see Rom. 6.7 8. Rev. 14.13 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Of this death and not of the corporal death did Chrysostome and Ambrose whom he cites speak or else they were as much mistaken as the Vindicator is in this matter saying there that the death which is brought out by sin he should have said by Christ doth at the last even destroy and consume it in the children of God and that sin will remain though not reign Yes if its will may take place it will reign also and that for ever But he goes on and comments thus upon Rom. 8.13 If ye mortifie the deeds of the body hereby saith he the Apostle shews that after regeneration by grace and before glorification grace is not consummate nor is corruption wholly abolished But with what spectacles did he read this Text when he found these things couchant in it for out of the whole verse he might have learned these saving truths for his better information and reformation also First that God doth suspend his final purpose and promises of our salvation upon Ifs or conditions on our parts to be performed For if ye live after the flesh saith Saint Paul ye shall dye but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the spirit ye shall live Secondly that the remaining corruptions in the Saints such as these Romans were have death and condemnation attending upon them Thirdly that therefore they are not to be wounded only but mortified that is absolutely killed And lastly that this is not to be done by the death of the body but by the power of the Spirit which we are to seek by grace and with which we are to cooperate in this life till the work be done His conclusion then from hence pag. 19. and 20. by the new account is false That as long as we live in the body there is some life of sin remaining which we had need to mortify and put off But not as he doth to put it off til our natural death But he addes Saint Augustine saying that our life here is bellum not triumphus a warfare not a trophee of victory Yet may our warfare have an end here and so to have our triumph and victory follow Esay 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith our God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned Ephes 6.13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand 2 Tim. 4.6 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness But he contradicts himself in his next speech pag. 20. by the new account saying that in this battel we must fight without intermission untill we have gotten the victory for who can say that he hath in such sort cut off his superfluities that he hath no need of reforming Yes Paul could say it 2 Cor. 5.17 and the holy Apostle John 1 Ep. 4.17 and 5.5 with many thousands more to whom Christ bears witness Rev. 7.14 15 20. and 14.4 5. That when sins and superfluities are unregarded they kindle again That it is true that the same spiritual temptations may return after the former are quenched but at length the Devil is by Christ to be cast out with all his works Rev. 12.10 11. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength and the kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down who accused them before God day and night Yet he saith further That whosoever he be unless he dissemble he shall find within himself something that had need to be subdued But such a Pigmee in grace as he is if he be under grace must not measure the growth and mortification of Gods faithful and sanctified Saints by his pitch But he brings in some sentences which he fathers upon Ambrose as this velis nolis infra sine tuos habitabit but he saith habitavit Jebusaeus subâ—ugari potest exterminare he should have said exterminari non potest that will thou nill thou the Jesubite will dwel wit hin thy coasts and borders he may be subdued but not rooted out This is true of temptations especially for a time after our first conversion but this conslict if we bestir our selves aright shall have an end here as we have proved of late some Jesubites are our sins and corruptions which must be rooted out again some Jebusites are our native faculties as they are corrupted disordered and poysoned with rebellion These also may be subdued and brought into obedience but neither can be cast out nor ought to be howbeit we have sure promises that all our sins and corruptions shall be subdued if we will sue out the benefit of the same Mich. 7.19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue all our iniquities and thou will cast their sins into the depths of the sea Insomuch as that there shall not be one Canaanite left in our soul which is the house and the temple of the Lord So Zech. 14.21 And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts Yet he goes on saying saying That the great deceitfulness of mans heart of which the Lord complaineth Jer. 17.9 saying the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it it is attributed to all men
new arguments from my friends against the truth of the point I shall endeavour to answer them by way of replication for their full satisfaction We are beholden to him for his promised endeavours and shall honour him when he hath set all the world on fire in the love of sin with this epitaph Quae si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis As for their old arguments saith he they stink before God and good men Romes good creatures excepted But our hope is that when the true Sabbath comes our doctrine shall no more stink then the Mannaa which was kept from the sixth to the Sabbathday Exod. 16.24 But his and their doctrine who take his part therein shall be like the river in Egypt turned into blood for it is but the fading notion of flesh and blood whose fish shall die and the river it self shall send forth a stink where the light of Gods truth and wisedom is and doth appear Exod. 7.18 Yet he proceeds and saith that our arguments have been so fully answered and confuted but we know not by whom that were not men past shame as himselfe is in denying his own Mother sister and wife when they write unto him set on work of hell to wit to stir up men to purge away all sin by seeking and setting up thereagainst the kingdom of Christ and ingaged for wages to Rome but doth the Pope then hire men to cry down sin and preach up Christs kingdome they would forbear to disturb the peace of Gods Church But who are Gods Church are they not such as are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 3. and what is the peace of his Church is it not to have the enmity slain the partition-wall of sin between us and God between each other broken down by Christ Ephe. 2.13 14 15. Doe we then disturb or interrupt this peace by our doctrine yea we further it all that we can it is he and those which hold forth his doctrine who with the false Prophets make the breach between God and man wider instead of hedging up the gap Eze. 13.4 5. if we disturb the peace of any Church it must be that which cals her selfe Christs Church but in this and the like doctrine differs not far from the Synagogue of Satan as will be more evident hereafter But pag. 48. he tels us for a farewell to this point or position That he and his party doubt not but maugre the malice of men and devils whom he hath often in his mouth truth shall hereby be made more manifest and shall prevail and that the folly of those that resist the truth shall be made manifest to all men The Lord grant that we may obey the Apostles commands from such turn away and the Lord in mercy strengthen our faith in the belief of that promise 2 Tim. 3.9 They shall proceed no further Unto all which in Pauls sense we say Amen knowing him to come as nigh to those deceivers of whom Paul speaks as Joannes doth to Jannes And then he passeth on to his second position which he hopes to clear as the former and so he may quickly do even as smoke cleareth the eye-sight The second position is That no man can by grace in this life perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified otherwise then in and by Christ of grace given Which mixt position he resolves into three branches or single positions as we told you at the beginning First that no man can perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same which was our entire second position agreed upon at the first Secondly that no man can be justified by the works of the Law or by his obedience thereunto And thirdly that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ And for the better understanding of the point saith he which points by his own distribution are three we must know that grace he means the word Grace is an equivocal word and that it is taken two ways in the Scripture he might have said ten ways at the least first pro gratia gratis data the free gift of God infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost But so are not only the common gifts which the Schoolmen call gratia gratis data but the grace of sanctification which they call gratia gratum faciens which of those then doth he mean here doubtlesse that grace of regeneration contrary to the sense and distinction of the Schools Then secondly saith he grace is taken pro gratia gratum faciente for the free favour of God whereby he makes us acceptable to himselfe and in this last sense saith he we say that we are justified by grace that is by the free favour of God whereby he imputeth not our sins but he accounts us just by imputing Christs justice to us By which you may take a view what a learned Schoolman he is for his age who saith that he is sixty five years old or somewhat ancienter than his own Mother if we mistake not the year of her age Now as grace is taken by him in the first sense for we say not that the Law can be perfectly fulfilled but by the grace of sanctification I say saith he that no man by grace in this life can perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same Pag. 48. and 49. he saith that God never gave what not to Christ himselfe nor ever will give such grace to any what not in the world to come to fulfill the righteousnesse of the Law in their own persons and so thereby to be found justified or righteous by the same You see how far the Vindicator interests himselfe in the Counsell of God as to know that he will never so justifie any man and this knowledge he must have by private revelation for it is contrary to Gods revealed will and practise Tit. 1.3 4 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 6.11 1 Pet. 1.1 2 3. for saith he it stands not with the glory of Christ that any such grace should be given from above behold a bold peece of blasphemy and the reason saith he may be this if by our infirmities the strength of Christ be made perfect as doubtlesse it is in the renewing of mens souls and the fulfilling of the Law thereby it must needs follow that by our strength the virtue of Christs cross is abated 2 Cor. 12.9 Thus he But we say he which hath learned his Christ-cross may easily perceive that he understands not his A. B. C. in Divinity for the strength whereby the Saints do or may fulfil the Law of God is not their own humane strength but the power and virtue of Christ which derogates nothing from his cross or sufferings But he backs his former saying with another Scripture which he understands as little to wit 2 Cor. 5.21
therefore all these are vain words and lying promises wherewith he would comfort himselfe and others without any ground of truth Text of Scripture But he saith pa. 51. that the Law should be fulfilled in this life is denyed by some of our own fraternity sin is condemned saith Cajetan but not extinguished But if he abuse him not let him henceforth own him for one of his fraternity as he may Bellarmine about original sin many more Papists both of the Jansenians Anti Jansenians in other points which he holds forth with Romea good creatures as he cals them yet we wil not so impudently say that he hath wages from the Pope unlesse we knew it But here he fals upon the second proposition or member of his second position telling us that the Apostle saith positively that no man shall be justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2.26 and yet the same Apostle saith Rom. 2.13 for not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified and St. James backs him saying chap. 1.22 Be ye doers of the Law and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls for none else shall be found righteous before God as we have proved before And therefore he and we had need to have recourse to Christ for grace to fulfill it in us Rom. 8.7 for which purpose that Text which he next alledgeth but in a false sense and to a deceitful purpose must be both a direction and support unto us in this case Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe nor doth that of Galat. 2.21 dissent therefrom or any way thwart the same we do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness be by the Law and our own weak and humane obedience performed thereunto without the assisting and renewing grace of Christ then Christ died in vain both as to meriting the pardon of our guilt as also to example and motive also but we say there is no way for the fallen and corrupt man to enter into life but through conformity to Christs death in the burial of all known iniquity which yet the Vindicator holds to be for attainment impossible Rom. 6.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. and yet it remains inviolate which he cites out of Gal. 3.11 That no man is justified by the Law or our own unregenerate works before God but the just shall live by faith to wit first the life of grace and then the life of glory also that 18 verse stands intire If the inheritance by the Law and our own obedience thereunto without the assistance of grace it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise But it is false which the Vindicator subjoyns It is faith that answers the promise to wit by closing with it and deriving from Christ by way of regeneration the things promised but obedience saith he holds no proportion with it Yes the obedience of faith must do it or else actum est de animabus in some measure Matth. 7.21 Rev. 22.14 18 19. But here he first cites Rom. 8.3 But that which was impossible to the Law insomuch as it was made weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh and afterwards he gives his connexion and false gloss upon the Text saying the Apostle having in the first verse set down a proposition of comfort to those that are in Christ he confirmed it in the second where also he shews us in his own person who they are to whom there is no condemnation in Christ namely to such whom the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed from the Law of sin and death and no other are absolutely and actually freed from that condemnation but they though others that are still in the work have a conditional promise of that freedome Vers 13. but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live But the Vindicator saith that the Apostle here shews us how Christ hath freed us from the condemning power of sin How is that not by his death alone as he would have it but by the Law of the Spirit of life in the first place subduing unto those that are dying with him the Law of sin and death But how is that done saith the Vindicator that is saith he Christ taking upon him our nature and therewith the burthen of our sins hath condemned sin in his blessed body and so disanulled it that it hath no power to condemn This is false as he understands it for sin hath a condemning power so long as it remaines unmortified in us as the Apostle witnesses Rom. 6.23 and 7.24 and chap. 8.13 as we proved before Christ hath purchased the pardon of sin by his death and hath it in his own hand to dispose of but bestows it upon none save so farre as sin is bewailed and left There is then another body of Christ which must take away the condemning power of sin and that is the body and flesh of his like sufferance and grace and that in order to that purchased pardon of which the bread broken in the supper of the Lord is a type as well as of the flesh of Christs word Jer. 15.16 And this benefit saith the Vindicator doth the Apostle amplifie shewing that by no other means we could obtain it Yet we have shewed you but even now another means which must go before the pardon of sin for as saith he there is but one way without Christ for men to come to life namely the observance of the Law which way is still retained also in Christ Matth. 19.17 Rev. 22.14 he lets us see saith the Vindicator that it was impossible for the Law to wit now that we are fallen to save us and this impossibility proceeds not from any impotency in the Law but from our selves as the Vindicator truly sets it forth and that in a three-fold respect for first it craves of us that which we cannot perform even an absolute obedience unto all the commandements and that under pain of death But whereas the Vindicator saith page 53. that that obedience may most justly now be required of us because that by creation he means in our first parents we received an holy nature and ability from God to keep this Law This is a false ground as we have proved before yet here in words he expresly contradicts his former doctrine saying that by reason of the depravation of our nature drawn on by our selves which is as much as we affirm in that kind it is impossible that we of our selves can keep or perform the Law Secondly because the Law could not give us that whereof we stood in need to wit a full discharge for our infinite debt of guilt contracted by transgression for saith he it promiseth no pardon but binds us fast to the
or imputed righteousnesse yet he justifieth the ungodly that turn from their ungodlinesse and that both by a proper and an imputed righteousnesse as we have shewed Secondly by the office of a mediator that was to undergo for us or rather to do for us whatsoever was required of us to be done But may not this be done as well within us by Christs grace and cooperation for us yea vvith much more piety and justice every man being created to a personal obedience tovvards God and his Lavv. Thirdly 〈◊〉 a recuperation or recovery of happiness vvhich could not be attained without perfect righteousnesse because the death of Christ as he saith freeth us from erernal death to wit when we are dead with him unto sin and the obedience of Christ that within us only brings us to eternal or everlasting life All which you must take upon his word and credit for he knows not how to prove it And therefore we say quoth he that Christ was born for us not only auferre peccata to take away the sins of the world to wit by sanctification by his voluntary suffering of the most bitter death of the cross but that only takes away the guilt and shews us how in order thereunto we should sacrifice flay and consume all our sins but adferre justitiam to bring righteousnesse unto us but how by his plenary obedience within us not without us to the most holy Law of God Which is yet unproved And therefore those Scriptures saith he that do ascribe our falvation unto Christs death which none do are not to be taken exclusively or as denying the active obedience of Christ to be imputed unto us but Synecdochically for the accomplishment of the whole obedience of Christ that was to be performed for us But none such was to be performed for us or upon our score as we have often affirmed nor can the contrary be proved out of the holy Scriptures And with this affirmation of his saith he agree the main and major part for his tooth and dyet as aforesaid of all orthodox he should have said heterodox Divines and most of the Fathers To wit since Calvins days Secondly saith he the passive obedience of Christ is all the sufferings of Christ both in life and death for our sins Yes and much more also in our inward man for us while we went on in our rebellion against God of which he never thinks because the justice of God required that we should never be freed from death without a just punishment in Christ like death also laid upon our selves or on some other for us both which we grant And therefore saith he the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah should be wounded yea had been so as we said before for your trausgressions and bruised for our iniquities chap. 53.5 And Daniel saith that he should be cut off but not for himselfe Daniel 9.26 and St. Peter saith should hear our sins in his our body on the cross but for what end that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse and then it follows by whose stripes or fellow-sufferings ye are healed 1 Pet. 2.14 and St. John saith Rev. 1.15 that he washed us him and his fellow-Apostles and Saints who were throughly clensed from sin in his own blood or Spirit Rev. 1.5 And here we must observe saith he that this obedience of Christ is of sufficient merit to satisfie for all sins and for those that were repented of and left more especially by reason of the dignity of the person that did obey or suffer for the hypostatical union of the Manhood of Christ with the Godhead makes the obedience of Christ to be of inestimable value or price Act. 20.18 True but that Te◠speaks of the blood of Christs Spirit for with that also is the Church of God purchased or redeemed from among men Rev. 14.3 4. Thirdly the formall cause saith he of our justification actively considered is a free imputation of Christs actual righteousnesse we say the inhesive whereby the merit of Christs obedience is applied unto all beleevers that is the accounting of us just and righteous for the merits of that obedience which Christ effected for us saith he pag. 71. But this is more formally then truly spoken for as we saith he apply unto our selves the righteousnesse of Christ and make the same our own by faith and acceptation he should have said by meer imagination so God himselfe saith he applieth it unto us by imputation according to his putation and accepts us for righreous for the righteousnesse of Christ which we have not and this imputation of righteousnesse saith he is a work of grace which God never spake or thought of not of nature a communicating of another righteousnesse and not a conferring of any real therein saith he truly or habitual righteousness upon us But without such a real or habitual one righteousness shall no man that hath polluted himself be justified or saved And this is a sweet exchange saith Justine Martyr if he belie him not or mistake not his sense in Epist ad Diog. that one should be sin for many and that the iniquity of many should be covered yea blotted out say we with the righteousness of one to wit his internal righteousness or that the justice or kindness of one should make many that are and were injust to be reputed yea to be just to omit that most of the Fathers which he had read speak to this purpose Frier Tarrus saith in serm de Dom. Advent Christ hath made all partakers of his justice and merits so say we that they might be able to stand in his sight and sustain the judoment of God see 1 John 4.17 18. often before alledged by us Because saith he there is no mortal man living whose righteousness to wit his own can be sufficient to obtain eternal salvation But if the Frier meant it as the Vindicator doth we hope the Vindicator will turn Frier also But saith the Vindicator Christs righteousness is made ours not because it is infused or translated into us Oh take heed of that for it would drive out sin too soon to abide habitually in us but because it is imputed and reputed unto us rather by him and his party then God as if it were theirs when it is not whom God doth acquit from sin and actually count just for the justice of Jesus Christ And therefore the force of our justification however I easily beleeve it is not any habitual sanctity subjectively remaining in us but the righteousness of Christ of which in his sense there is no mention in the Scriptures freely imputed unto us and so though it be without us and they without it yet it is made ours by right of giving if he knew by whose gift The Apostle saith he remarkably in Rom. 4.6 7. joyneth both the imputation of righteousness and the remission of sins together as the two special means to make us happy And so do we
himself and many others in this life saying 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment But saw first many thousand servants of God of every tribe sealed And after I beheld a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands who came out of great tribulation here and had washed their robes and had made them white in the blood or spirit of the lamb Rev. 3.14 And the like spectacle he saw chap. 14.4 5. of men that follow the lamb wheresoever he goeth being redeemed from among men and made the first fruits unto God and the lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God The eleventh Topick shall be the two parts of all practical truth in Christ of which before out of Ephes 4.20 24. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupting through the deceitful lusts and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds and put you on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth The last Topick shall be the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven which in its coming is called the Lord our righteousness from the presence of the holy Ghost or rather of the whole Trinity Jer. 33.15 16. At that day and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwel safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our righteousness Which Jerusalem is promised to every overcomer of sin and Satan Rev. 3.12 as before and it is an estate to be had in this life as Mr. Brightman and most of the best interpreters among the the Protestants and Arrias Montanus among other Papists doth confess out of the clearness and evidence of the Text Rev. 21.23 And I John saw the holy city new Ierusasalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be with them and be their God And at vers 9. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death viz. spiritual death which is either sin or the wages of sin neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more spiritual pain which being effects of sin are with their causes taken away before for the former things are passed away So our obedience to the law must go before as a preparative and a qualification hereunto Lev. 26.3 and 11.12 If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandements and do them then will I give you rain in due season c. and I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhorre you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people See Ezek. 37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and Psal 128.1 5. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord and walketh in his wayes and vers 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem to wit the spiritual Jerusalem aforesaid all thy dayes Thus much of divine authority now for humane Justine Martyr in Resp ad Orthodoxos saith That which is possible to one man is possible to any as to saile by sea for even as the Scripture saith that certain of them who live under the law were unblamable in righteousness so it was possible unto all those who lived under the law to have been alike unblamable for Saint Luke the Evangelist saith of Zacharie and Elizabeth chap. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements justification or righteousness of the law blameless But what is the total righteousness of the law even to love God above thy self and thy neighbour as thy self which is not impossible unto those men which apply their will and desire thereunto Wherefore that saying By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified was not spoken or used by the Apostle because we cannot perform impossibilities but because we will not frame our selves to do things possible Origen in his ninth homil upon Joshuah saith Doth not that man seem unto the Worthies to be reckoned among women who saith I cannot observe or do that which is written And again in the same place he that saith I cannot fulfill them doth he not manifest himself worthy to be ranked among the feminine sort who can do nothing that is virile or like a man or worthy of that sex Cyprian serm de Baptis Christi Neither doth this written law in any thing differ from the natural but the rejection or refusal of evil and the election of good are so infixed into the rational soul from above that no man hath just cause in this behalf to complain because there is neither knowledge nor power wanting unto any man for the prosecution and performance of the same because we know what ought to be done and have power to effect what we know whereas if the precepts were impossible or invironed with so great difficulties or thy will therein so abstruse and hidden that the thing could not be understood which thy Highness or Majesty requireth of us albeit no man sins against his will yet he might many ways excuse his offence or sin unless the equity and moderation of that which is commanded and the clear knowledge of the truth and the distinction of things to be done or not done had been sufficiently provided for us by an intelligible authority and therewith the possibility facility and power had therein embraced each other Basil Magnus homil 3. It is impious to say that the precepts of Gods Spirit are impossible And in Psalm 119.155 he saith I knowing that thou beholdest me have not onely fulfilled thy commandements but I have done it also with a fervent mind Chrysost homil 19. in Heb. Christ commandeth nothing that is impossible in so much that many go beyond the commandements and homil 18. de poeniton And if it be demanded who ever did this he presently answers Saint Paul Saint Peter and even the whole chorus or quire of Saints and homil de poenitent 8. Do not in any wise accuse the Lord for he doth not command things that are impossible Hieron Symbol Apost Epist 17. We detest their blasphemy who affirms that